NEGOTIATING THE END OF THE WORLD
For decades, the world has tried to negotiate its way out of a climate catastrophe – through summits, accords, frameworks and pledges. Yet emissions rise, deadlines pass and the gap between ambition and action keeps widening. The reason isn’t just political failure. It’s a war of ideas. Â
At the centre of that war is Carl Schmitt, the Nazi jurist whose ‘once-taboo’ vision of a world defined by friends and enemies, strong powers and submissive ones, has quietly become the operating logic of our moment. You can see it in Trump’s America, Xi’s China, and the surging authoritarian movements reshaping democracies from Europe to Australia.  Â
Hamilton traces how Schmitt’s shadow has fallen across global climate negotiations – and asks whether a world in the grip of nationalist rivalry can summon the collective will to survive?
Clive Hamilton
Clive Hamilton is an Australian author, academic and commentator. From 1994-2008 he was the director of The Australia Institute, a progressive think tank he also founded. He’s held visiting positions at the University of Oxford, Sciences Po in Paris, and Yale University. His most recent book is Negotiating the End of the World: Kant, Schmitt, and the Global Climate Struggle (Polity Books, 2026).
Gwilym David Blunt
Award-winning philosopher, writer, and public commentator, Gwilym David Blunt combines a deep interest in academic philosophy with real world problems of global inequality, historical injustice, and the ethics of resistance. David is currently lecturing in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Sydney. He has held positions at the University of Cambridge and City, University of London. His work has appeared in Aeon, ABC, The Conversation, RTE, The National Interest, Metro, Âamong others. His book Global Poverty, Injustice, and Resistance was described as ‘a provocative intervention… that demands serious attention’. He is also a proud Fellow of The Ethics Centre.
We acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation - the custodians of the country on which we meet - and acknowledge their Elders, past and present.
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